ST MICHAEL'S Golf Club is hoping to bury last year's crippling course closure with a totally new-look professionally designed course.

Halton Borough Council has announced it is following the leads of American golf clubs by drafting in a top architect to design a course which will could put the club back on the map for the right reasons.

But despite the council's commitment to the project the course has suffered a new setback of having to close the whole course down till spring.

The council was hoping to confirm that the back nine holes were fit to play but it says it has been forced to keep the whole course closed.

A council spokeswoman said: 'Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, it has proved impractical to carry out the works as planned and the council has, therefore, had to take the difficult decision to keep the whole course closed.'

The course closed in October for remedial works to clear the ground of contamination by the lethal poison arsenic.

A £4m clean-up operation was put in place by council chiefs to clear the ground of contamination by the lethal poison arsenic, which covered the first nine holes of the course.

The shock find came as Stewards Brook was being investigated prior to planned improvements, but the council expected the back nine to re-open in spring - however it now looks like those plans have been put on a back-burner.